Rare photo of interior of Lizzie Borden’s home to go on display

Donita Naylor Journal Staff Writer donita22

Tuesday

Jul 29, 2014 at 4:17 PM

FALL RIVER, Mass. — A photograph taken inside Lizzie Borden’s home while she was living on French Street has surfaced and will be displayed at the Fall River Historical Society beginning Aug. 4, the 122nd anniversary of the Borden murders.

FALL RIVER, Mass. — A photograph taken inside Lizzie Borden’s home while she was living on French Street has surfaced and will be displayed at the Fall River Historical Society beginning Aug. 4, the 122nd anniversary of the Borden murders.

The rare photo, of a cherished possession, offers a glimpse of the residence, known as “Maplecroft”, that she shared with her sister Emma Borden after she was acquitted of murdering their parents. The photo was commissioned by Borden, mounted and framed.

It was presented to her personal maid, Ida S. Carlson, around the time that Ida married Bennett Peter Soderman in 1899. Ida displayed the photograph in her home, and after she died it was acquired by a relative, whose descendant gave it to the historical society. In 2009, the same descendant also donated Borden’s 14K gold American Waltham Watch Company safety-barrel watch in a hand-engraved case. The watch, now part of the historical society’s permanent Borden exhibit, had been bequeathed by Lizzie in 1927 to Ida’s daughter, Alice Isabel Soderman.

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